Heritage (Under Revision)

Chapter 34 - Leon

“So, this is the Keza tree huh?” I ask, wiping the sweat from my brow and looking up at the towering tree above.

“Yep. Someone has to climb it and get one of Keza nuts,” Stella replies, looking up herself.

“Uh, who’s gonna be the one to do that?” I ask once more.

“That who would be you.”

“Huh? Why me?”

“Because you’re the man in the group and your stronger.”

I roll my eyes and sigh. “Alright. Fine,” I say as I walk towards the tree, stretching my arms out so I can limber them up. I stop and turn around and look at Stella. She looks somewhat hurt by the tone of my voice. I take a deep breath and let it out.

“I’m sorry, Stella. I don’t know what’s going on with me lately. I say things and hardly realize I say them until it’s already done. Don’t take anything hurtful I say to heart. I really don’t mean it,” I say to her. Stella nods her head, still looking at the ground

“Okay...” she says quietly.

I turn around and grip the Keza tree, finding foot and handholds. Once my grip is stable enough, I begin climbing the tree. It must be at least fifty feet tall and covered in vines. Climbing it is tedious due to the vines also being covered in thorns. I have to carefully pick my handholds. Ten minutes pass and I finally reach the top of the tree. I pull myself up on to a branch and rest for a few minutes. I close my eyes and lean my head back against the tree and take a deep breath, and when I open my eyes there’s another big pair of bright, sapphire blue eyes staring right back me.

“Gah, shit!” I yell as I fall off the branch I’m on.

I grab on to the branch quickly with the arm that had just recently been fixed late last night by Anika’s medical supplies. The bone still isn’t up to par since it was artificially repaired and the pain is agonizing as I hold on to the branch.

The little creature looks over the branch at me and I look back up from the ground and look the animal in the eyes. It tilts its head at me and examines me. I see it extend a clawed hand out towards mine. I frantically try to pull myself up as I think it’s going to scratch my hand and make me fall to my death. Instead, it places his hand on mine and grips it. He does the same with his other hand and it I can feel him pulling as if he were trying to pull me up. I can’t help but grin at his effort.

I reach my other arm up and pull myself back on to the branch. I get a better look at the animal and see that it very much resembles a lemur or small primate. It grabs my arm and examines it. It rubs the center of my forearm with his hand and then places my arm back down on my leg.

“Look at you. You aren’t harmful at all, are you?” I say to it with a smirk on my face.

“Is everything alright up there?!” Stella yells. I look down at her.

“Yeah, everything is fine, I’ll be down in a moment!” I yell back. I quickly grab the Keza nut and climb back down the tree.

“What happened up there?” Stella asks as I hop down from the tree.

“Slipped off the branch but, I had a little buddy here help me up,” I say as the strange animal climbs on to my shoulder.

“Hey, it’s a Neon-Eyed Lemur,” Stella says as she approaches and begins to pet the animal.

“Why do they call it Neon-Eyed?” I ask.

“Because at night, their eyes glow,” Stella answers.

“Um...Stella, Leon...we have a problem,” Anika says in the distance.

Stella and I turn towards Anika’s direction and freeze in place. The lemur screeches and jumps off my shoulder back onto the tree.

“What...the hell... is that?” I ask quietly.

“It’s an Armored Lion,” Stella answers with a shaky voice.

The creature glares at all of us with blood red eyes, bearing its large, silver colored fangs. His mane is made of many long, sharp bristles. The rest of his body is, as the name says, armored in a tuft of gleaming, dark indigo. Its talons look like they can slash through steel if needed.

“What do we do?” I ask.

“If we run, it’ll kill us for sure. The best we can do is just stand still,” Stella once again answers.

The large beast continues to stare with bloodlust in his eyes. My eyes glance down to his claws and I see it dig them into the dirt.

“Move!” I scream, as the lion lunges toward Stella and I.

We dive to opposite directions and the lion dives between us. I hit the ground and roll back to my feet and I see Stella still lying on the ground. I rush to her side. The lion continues to stalk around us in a circle, toying with us. I look towards Anika and see that she’s rocking back and forth in front of the tree. She must’ve dealt with the beast before this time.

“Stella, are you okay?” I ask, turning back to her.

Stella looks back at me slowly with labored breathing. I catch a glimpse of her holding her side and I remove her hand and see three large gashes on her side, blood staining a large portion of her shirt. Stella then turns her head and becomes unconscious. An immense feeling of sorrow and sadness overcomes me and I feel as if I’m going to cry.

But then, something interferes with my emotions. I feel an intense, skull shattering headache. It’s even worse than any of the other times. A feeling of rage, anger, and hate overcomes my emotions and I can only think of one thing...

I want blood.

The headache subsides, but the emotions remain. I stand up off the ground and look back at Anika and I see her look at me with an expression of fear.

“Take care of Stella”, I say to her.

Anika nods her head and moves to Stella, attempting to tend to her wound. I step away from the two and look the Armored Lion directly in the eyes, unwavering my gaze from it. I pull my knife from its sheathe and reverse my grip on so that the blade is facing down.

“You want your food you son of a bitch?! Well come get it,” I say to the creature.

The lion bears its teeth once more and begins to sprint at me. It lunges at me once it reaches sufficient speed. I allow it to collide with my body. We both are driven through the air until my back impacts with the Keza tree.

The pain I feel would be unbearable to anyone else, but somehow my mind subsides it. I begin to stab my blade at its head, chipping away at the armor it has encasing its body. I can feel the beast ripping at my arms and body with its talons. I ignore the pain and continue stabbing and slicing. The lion then tosses me to the left fifteen feet. I roll another ten when I land and I stand to examine my wounds for a moment.

There are gashes running halfway down my upper right arm and another set running down the lower portion of my left leg. Bites in my flesh mark my torso. I’m amazed that I’m even still alive myself.

I gaze back up and see that the lion is standing directly across from me, still bearing his teeth. My own blood mixed with its saliva drips from its mouth. The lion sprints once again towards me, I do the same in return. It makes one final lunge at me and instead of allowing it to hit me again, I slide on my knees underneath it, holding my blade up. I feel the knife puncture and then a slight resistance as the blade slides down the lion’s stomach. I feel a warmth as the lions purple shaded blood paints my clothing and face. I roll out of my slide back into a kneeling position and see that the lion is laying on the other end of the area, dead.

I walk over to its corpse and begin stabbing it over and over again. Gore covers my clothing, face, and knife. My muscles feel like they’re on fire from stabbing the body so many times. My action is put to a stop a pair of hands grabbing my arms and forcing them down.

“It’s alright Leon. You can stop now. It’s dead son, it’s dead,” my father’s voice sounds to me.

I look him in the eyes and he stares back at mine with a look of shock. I feel the anger and hatred fade from my mind and exhaustion takes over. My eyes get heavy and my vision fades until I pass out.

*************************************

I open my eyes to blurry vision and shake my head as the picture becomes clear. I’m on my side facing the fire in the camp and I push myself into a sitting position and look around.

“What happened?” I say out loud.

“You, Stella, and Anika were attacked by an Armored Lion. You two are lucky you made it. Damien and I took care of it though. You managed to get the Keza nut too,” my father answers, approaching me.

“Why am I covered in this purple stuff?” I ask once more.

“That’s the blood of the lion, you managed to injure it pretty decently,” my father answers again.

“Is Stella okay?”

“She will be. She was scratched, herself. But nowhere near your injuries. We used the skin sealer to cauterize both of yours and Stella’s wounds. Just as long as you don’t do anything too strenuous the seal won’t tear.”

“Okay. Were you able to get the crystal re-formed?”

“Yeah. We have it installed already. We’re going to be leaving in a few hours to—”

My father’s words are cut off by a loud explosion and a flash of light in the sky. My father looks down from the light and back at me, finishing his sentence.

“To go to the wormhole. As you can plainly see the battle has already started up there, so we need to capitalize on it,” Dad explains to me.

“Got it, Dad,” I say, standing up.

“Come on, we need your help for a couple things tech-related. Don’t use too much energy though, you’re going to need it for the trip,” Father warns me.

We enter the back of the ship where the section of the device is and Mother, Uncle Damien, and Anika all give me an odd look.

“What?” I ask.

All of them just shake their heads and return to their work.

Something isn’t right about Dad’s story, and I plan on finding out the truth...